‘Raman Singh govt kept Assembly in dark over tours

Raipur: Congress leader Ajit Jogi on Saturday accused the Chhattisgarh government of keeping the Assembly in the "dark" over expenses incurred on official tours and demanded from Chief Minister Raman Singh and his cabinet to colleagues make these public.

"The BJP government headed by Raman Singh has undertaken foreign tours for many times on varied reasons including foreign investments and alike in the last nine years. However, the government did not inform either the state Assembly or common people about these expenses and benefits, if any," the former chief minister claimed.

Jogi alleged that the Raman Singh government spends "generously" towards advertisements whenever senior BJP leaders visit the state. "A heavy burden is inflicted on the state treasury in name of good governance," he said.

"Crores of rupees were spent on Chhattisgarh Diwas celebrations. The state has incurred huge losses in power generation while the Central funds go unused. The common people want to known about the loan from World Bank, expenses from CM`s Contingency Fund and royalty the government received from mining," Jogi said.

He demanded that expenses on domestic and foreign tours of Raman Singh government in the last nine years be made public.